An indoor garden is a place where winter does not exist, and that’s quite something when you live in a cold climate. Indeed, it is a happy place. Being happy seems to be most important, as one of my recent books says: “You must allow yourself to be the being that life has caused you to become if you‘re to feel joy. And unless you‘re feeling joy, you‘re not allowing yourself to be that which life has caused you to become. (Chapter 7, The Astonishing Power of Emotions by Esther Hicks)
In today’s video, we talk about the lemon tree that we grow indoors during the winter and in the Geodesic dome during the summer. It is a Meyer Lemon and the tree is now almost 3 years with us. We are often asked, how to grow lemons in a cold climate. To be honest, I do not have much to say about it. Like with most plants we just care for them with love.
Pruning the lemon tree
I watched some videos on pruning a lemon tree and found out that it is not much different than an apple tree. All the branches that grow inside the tree or straight up have to go. If something grows too low, it is pruned away as well. Our tree has a bush shape, and so far we like it. Maybe down the road, we will prune it into a tree, but so far we have not seen any need for it.
Transplanting a lemon tree
The trees are usually sold in too small pots, to keep them small. We transplanted the tree right away. For the next size though I want to transplant it into a grow bag to encourage healthy root growth. Grow bags can be easily made or bought.
Also in the video is an update on lettuce, Chinese kale, kohlrabi as well as tomatoes. All of this grows in hydroponic, you can see the NFT system here, and the upgrade here.
If you are growing a lemon tree, please share your insights with us. We love to learn together.
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You are the folks with the plastic covered, growing dome correct? Would love to have one. I hope to try hydroponics soon! Amazing!
Yes, that’s us. In the winter we grow only indoors. The plastic-covered growing dome is great for the summer months.
I have a small myer lemon tree that died back to 6 inches above the rootstock/graft? a few years ago. I was told it would never grow normally and produce. Well, I didn’t have the heart to let it die, so kept it watered. It produced new branches and a single lemon appeared last year. This year it outgrew the space I had for it in the little hobby greenhouse so it was moved outdoors in zone 7a where we get snow at 3300 ft elevation I covered the whole pot/tree with a large thin plastic bag and wrapped it in a blanket during the first snowstorm. Left it covered for a few weeks so it basically got no light. It was tucked away in a corner near the house/patio on the southwest side of the house. Well, it lost most of the lower leaves but not the ones on the top half. It was strange as the dropped leaves were still green and healthy looking. Someone at the nursery mentioned that plastic should not be directly in contact with a lemon tree as it reacts somehow and causes leaves to drop. I’d never heard this so thought I’d share with you. As a further puzzle i also have a limequat tree potted and in the same corner of the house as the meyer. It is considerably larger 3-4 ft tall with a double layer of large clear plastic bags snuggly pulled down over the whole tree and the pot. It is thorny so I cannot remove the plastic without tearing it apart, so I just lifted the bottom in order to water this tree a bit as another freeze is expected this weekend and the soil seemed dry. This limequat is loaded with yellow fruits that are 1 to 2 inches long. It has never produced this well and I’m delighted. So, why didn’t it loose leaves since it is also covered with plastic directly in contact with the leaves and was also blanketed and without sun?? At some point I hope to have a proper sized greenhouse to put these two trees in. I have modified the set up a bit in the past few weeks as the weather got warmer and I removed the blanket. I wrapped the area with a sheet of acrylic that is about 4 ft tall. Hopeing that will keep the root and base of the trees warm enough to survive this next cold spell and just blanket the very top so some light gets in. I think you had done something like this with a low wall surrounding grow boxes to help cut the wind, so I thought it might be good to try.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Plastic is generally not the best product to protect plants, glad your limequat tree took it so well. Fabric is a better choice, or as you say to build something around. A temporary frame can make all the difference.